A New Game
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: It had been several hundred turns since Alice had returned to her world after completing the game. And since then Wonderland has been thrown into turmoil. The role holders being gripped by madness. Nightmare takes it upon himself to send his aide Gray to the other world to seek another outsider for them before Wonderland dies... first attempt at Gray/OC lovin. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone- it's been a while and I felt like making another story for Joker/Clover.**

 **Alice finished the game long ago and returned home to her world. Now years later, Wonderland and it's inhabitants are in a state of unrest. So much so that Nightmare has taken it upon himself to send Grey to the other world to bring back a girl to act the part of Alice until things settle down.**

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Gray stared at his boss in a state of confusion and disbelief, his mind going over Lord Nightmare's order's again. Trying to see the sense in them, however couldn't. To the former assassin his master's order's simply made _no_ sense whatsoever.

Just what the hell did he mean by, "I'm sending you to the other world to find a young lady to bring back to Wonderland with you to act the part of 'Alice'?"

Honestly, he knew that Wonderland had been thrown out of sorts ever since the former outsider had left them, but he hadn't known that things were so bad that they would have to seek out another outsider to take Alice's place in their world as the outsider.

Grappling with his order's and trying to think of something to say he heard his master let out a soft sigh as he propped his chin in his palm and stared at the tall dark haired man that stood before him.

He knew that the man disapproved of the 'job' that he had just given him. After all out of all of the people in Wonderland, Gray had been one of the rare few to somehow manage to keep from being romantically interested in Alice when she had been there.

Perhaps it had to do with their age difference, or perhaps it had to with the fact that Gray didn't exact feel that he could trust himself with one so innocent and trusting. Whatever the reason, he was truly the only one that Nightmare really even semi trusted to get this particular job done.

Finally managing to shake himself out of his funk, Gray stammered slightly. "I-I didn't know that things in Wonderland were so bad."

"They weren't at first, but since Alice left- things began to gradually go downhill... Every role holders sanity is hanging by a thread. Myself included, I'm afraid. And after each of us falls to madness the world will wither and die. That is why we need another outsider to help tether us and this world. It is the reason why I will be using my power to send you to the other world to find an girl suitable to our needs." Nightmare explained.

As he watched Gray's gold colored eyes seemed to stare sightlessly ahead of him for a moment before Nightmare said, "Alice's world has changed since both her arrival here and her departure. You'll have to be careful, the people there aren't quite as violent as our own... But they can be if crossed."

"W-When do I leave?"

"Soon." Nightmare said, not really wishing to distress the man any further by disclosing the fact that he would be sent a little while later- preferably during the night while he slept.

He wished he could give Gray more time to adjust to his new role, but time was very quickly slipping. As it was already he could feel the effects of the madness gripping his mind with clawed fingers that scratched and scrambled for purchase within his skull.

 _It won't be much longer now-_ He thought as he looked at Gray again and noted that the man was heading for his office door. Where upon reaching it, he paused for a moment to say over his shoulder. "Then I will go and prepare for my journey." And with that, he left as quietly as he had come.

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Gray sat on the bed in his room, looking over everything with a critical eye.

Since he had no idea how long he would be gone or much of anything else he had decided to pack everything from clothing, to a first aid kit, and even some weapons before he had straightened up his room a bit. Gold eyes flickering towards the somewhat substantial sized roll of greenery that Lord Nightmare had brought to him earlier before explaining it's purpose and then taking his leave- Gray found it just a little bit odd that he would need so much of the stuff.

Which gave him the impression that he would be gone for quite a while, a few months maybe a little longer depending on how troublesome he made his own task, before returning with some faceless young miss.

And in that time he would not only be attempting to get to know the girl, her likes, dislikes and what her life in general was like but he would also be acting as her bodyguard/babysitter while he was at it.

Looking away from the greenery that he none too subtly snatched up and stuffed in his pant's pocket, he then looked everything over again before deeming it all well enough to be left alone for the time being.

After all, it wasn't like he was a messy person to begin with. So he had no need to straighten anything up any further.

And with that knowledge firmly in mind, he relaxed slightly for the first time since this morning when he had been given his new job by Lord Nightmare and took a moment to try and think of the sort of young woman that he would be looking for. After all he needed something to go by.

Should he look for a young girl like Alice? Or would that perhaps cause issues? Perhaps he should look for a young girl with different hair and eyes. One with a more peculiar name than Alice.

Closing his eyes for a moment he tried to imagine what the miss would look like.

He liked long-ish hair on women, thought he was more fond of those with dark hair than light. So a blond was out. Red was also a nice color, though it was far from one of his favorites since it was the color of those who lived in Heart Castle. So red was a possibility, but not a certain one. He wasn't overly fond of the color brown for a woman's hair, but if the person he found had brown hair- he supposed that it'd do in a pinch.

The length should be eight a little past the shoulders or around the small of the back.

The body type of the young miss should be slender, petite, but not so slender that she would easily be broken if one of the role holders took her to their bed.

And that was another thing. Was he to search for a virgin or not? He supposed that one way or the other it didn't really matter as long as there was an outsider.

The eyes should be a lovely and entrancing color. Not blue. While some colors of blue were nice- it was such a common color that any appeal that it held quickly vanished. Green was nice. But not what he was looking for. He doubted that anyone in Alice's world had red eyes.

Though that eye color would certainly look lovely with dark hair. But then again so would teal. Violet. Emerald...ect. And before the man even realized it, he had dozed off sitting up next to his things. Which was how Nightmare found him when it was time to send him to the other world.

He just prayed that Gray could find someone and return before it was too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Sara bit back a yawn as she stepped out into the cool Autumn air and quietly pulled the door to her store closed and then took a moment to lock it. Before deciding to head home. Today had started out fairly eventful, she had left home, opened shop and had several customer's come in and buy a few thousand dollars worth of stuff. But around lunch time, everything had died down.

After which she had sat at her desk, done inventory, paper work, boxed up a few things for shipping, checked her shop website, then her email, and then deposited a portion of the money that she made online into her shop account while managing to withhold enough to pay her bills and get enough groceries for the month while still managing to have several hundred dollars left over to put into her emergency fund.

Just in case she needed a trip to the hospital or something like last time.

Not because she had a bad tendency to get hurt- although with her family around all the damn time- she did wind up with more than her fair share of bruises, broken bones, and internal injuries. After all, her older brother's were a bunch of hard handed bastards.

Which was probably why she hated them.

Walking down the crowded street, she began to make the mile long trek to her home while trying to think of what needed to be done once she was home. She knew that she needed to look over some of the applicant's for her friend's apartment building since there was still an apartment for rent. Then she needed to go out and pay a few bills and get some groceries...

 _Ugh. Is today ever going to end?_ She wondered tiredly.

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Gray stirred slightly when he felt something cool nip at his skin, and cracked open his gold colored eyes to see why it was so cool that he was almost shivering only to notice that he was propped up against something that felt like brick with grey colored stone underneath him.

Concrete? He wondered to himself with a slight frown. When had he moved from his bedroom in Clover Tower?

His bag lay next to him, just within his reach. For easy access, he would imagine. Straightening his spine a little bit, he pressed his shoulders back against the building/house that he had been left outside of.

He had just shifted to grab his stuff and get to his feet when he heard a soft clicking sound heading his way and looked up in time to see a vision with mid back length jet black hair, wearing a long sleeved aquamarine colored sweater dress with a white pearl necklace, black leggings, and calf length black leather boots with small heels.

Freezing for a moment, gold eyes momentarily met shockingly beautiful teal before the young lady entered the building that he had been resting against.

 _Who was that?_ Gray wondered as he carefully climbed to his feet and tilted his head back to look up at the building that the woman had entered. Curiosity to learn the female's name warring with his duty to search for a new outsider to take Alice's role.

And from the look of the stunning beauty that he had just seen, he had his first potential outsider for the new game. Getting up from where he sat on the concrete, Gray grabbed his bag as he got to his feet and straightened his spine until he heard a disturbing pop coming from somewhere in his lower back.

No doubt from his bad posture while he had been sitting.

Moving to stand before the door that he'd seen the woman step through, he paused when he saw a small piece of paper that read,

 **Apartment for rent.**

 **Fully furnished, affordable pay.**

 **No pets. Only serious inquiries.**

 **If interested either call (376-30095)or stop by and ask for Sara.**

Taking a moment to consider the pros and cons among other things. All of which led him back to the fact that he _would_ need someplace to live during the time that he spent in this strange new world. A base of operations so to speak. Taking a moment longer to mull things over, he finally made a decision and reached for the strange looking thing that helped open the door and pulled it.

The door opened and he quickly stepped inside of the building taking a moment to note the interior.

The building was actually pretty nice. Not exactly upscale like he had worried it would be, but it wasn't exactly low class either if the unique paintings hanging on the walls, the plushly carpeted cream colored floors, the vases filled with flowers and wooden furniture was anything to go by.

Reaching out, he ripped down the paper that had been hanging on the door and used it as a sort of guide as he walked up to the desk in the lobby and without a word showed it to the man sitting there.

He was an elderly fellow, in his mid to late fifties with a pleasant and friendly character to him. He took one look at the paper held in Gray's hand and grinned. "Interested in the apartment huh?" He said nicely, his tone laced with curiosity as he looked Gray over from head to well, he couldn't look past where the desk let him but he imagined that the dark haired young man was a foreigner.

Which would contribute some to his lack of vocal response.

The foreigner was a handsome one. Tall, perhaps standing at six foot three with tan colored skin gold eyes and shoulder length blue black hair. His clothes were clean, though they were a bit rumpled and wrinkled. The white shirt underneath the layered clothing made it a tad bit difficult to tell if the younger man was muscular or not.

But the elder would bet that the man was no damn pushover.

Despite being a foreigner, he looked like someone who could knock a person's teeth down their throat and smile while doing it.

Turning partially in his seat the elder picked up the phone sitting on his desk and said kindly, "Well I'm not a nosey person by nature so I'll just stop asking questions and call Sara for you. But we may have to give the gal a moment or so to change since she just got off of work a few minutes ago."

"That and the last time I called her for an applicant she almost broke her pretty little neck when she tripped and fell down the stairs in her haste to get here. I'm sure that you won't begrudge her an extra moment or two..." Gray blinked and the elder grinned as if the man had just spoken and chirped in a pleased tone, "I didn't think so. You seem like the patient type."


	3. Chapter 3

Sara had just managed to change her shoes to some flats and take her long hair down from the clip that she'd used to hold it up when she paused on her way to the kitchen and looked at her cell. The strange tingling sensation that she usually got before something happened was going mad as she stared at her cell knowing from experience that it was just moments (give or take) from ringing.

Waiting another second or so, she reached out absently and picked it up and pressed the call button to answer it before it could even ring and then held it up to her ear. "Yes Gene, what do you need?" She greeted the person on the other end and asked despite knowing damn well what he was calling about.

It had something to do with the strange gold eyed man that she had seen earlier.

She knew it, could feel it. Hell she'd even had a small vision of the future where the guy was residing in the apartment across from her.

It had happened shortly after she had locked eyes with him and then opted to ignore the strange thrill that shot down her spine as she had entered the building and walked up the five flights of stairs to her floor before stopping when she had thought that she had seen him, standing outside of her apartment with his hand poised as if to knock before he had gritted his teeth and turned and vanished into the apartment across from her home.

It had taken her a moment or so to recover enough to realize that the blasted man was in some way meant to be tangled up with her in the near future. Though she had no idea how.

She vaguely heard the elder on the other end of the phone say her name several times before there was a clattering sound that was akin to a chair hitting the floor as he then all but shouted in her ear just loud enough to jolt her out of her mind's inner workings and to be annoying at the same time.

 _"Sara! You answer me right now or I'm coming up there after you, dammit!"_

To which she growled, "Ow!" She let out a soft hiss as she took the phone away from her ear for a moment to absently rub at her ear before replacing it and snapping, "Stop swearing at me Gene! You do of course realize that you're bellowing in my ear." It wasn't a question. It was merely a point of fact. He really was yelling in her ear. And her ear drums were _ringing_ from it.

Something that she did not appreciate at all given the fact that she had no real desire to go deaf this early in her life.

Gene barely changed his tone the next time he spoke although he did sound a mite less scared than he had before. "Oh. Sorry," He didn't sound the least bit sorry to her, Sara noted in slight irritation. "I didn't mean to yell in your ear like that but with those hoodlums that have been harassing you, plus the break-in's that have been occurring lately- I guess I just assumed that since you live alone..." He let his voice trail off as she gnashed her teeth and inwardly seethed.

Oh she knew just what he had been thinking alright. And nothing pissed her off faster than someone who didn't really know her assuming that she was some damn damsel in distress.

She _knew_ how to fight for christs sake!

She had taken boxing, kick boxing, and karate for five years after moving out of her family home and starting her life on her own. Hell she even knew how to use a fucking gun. So she was not the innocent little thing that most people assumed she was.

She merely didn't advertise the fact that she carried heat and could kill someone with her bare hands. She would rather people underestimate her than know that she could fight back adequately. But that was neither here nor there. Right now se supposed that she should have to deal with the gold eyed man.

"Tell him I'll be down in a second." She said with a sigh as she felt the oncoming of a headache forming somewhere behind her eyes. If she made this quick and got the guy to sign the papers then she could pop a few pills and then go grab her groceries before dinner.

 _"Alright."_ Gene said before hanging up the phone.

Setting his phone back where it was, Gene turned to the young man to find him still standing there staring at him. His gold colored eyes questioning as the elder bent down to pick up his chair. Chuckling at how strange he must have seemed to the young man, Gene righted his chair and then sat back down as he said, "Sorry about a few moments ago. But the gal has been living alone since she was sixteen and doesn't care much for her family..." Gold eyes blinked and Gene found himself going on to say in a slightly hushed tone.

"I'm not much of a rumor monger but from what I do know about her is that her family is run by her older brothers and each of them enjoy hurting her every chance they get. I can't begin to tell you how many times the cops have shown up here just to pull one of the bastards off of her after they beat the hell out of her."

Those gold eyes narrowed slightly at the information he had just supplied and Gene almost smiled.

Ah, so he was a protective sort. That was good. Especially since he would be the closest to ground zero since if he decided to stay he would be living across from the little gal.

"She said that she'd be down in a second." Gene finally said as he made himself comfortable for a second before realizing that he had been rather rude so far and hadn't asked the young man his name or anything. "Oh! I forgot, my name is Gene Williams. Sara's last name is Ambers." Gold eyes blinked at him again as he chuckled in amusement and said, "I know right. Whoever heard of a girl named Sara Ambers? By the way, what's your name? I didn't ask before."

"Gray Ringmarc." Gray finally said, his deep voice somewhat startling the elder.

"Gray? Hn, that's an interesting name. I've never heard of anyone with your last name though. So Ringmarc must be a rare name."

"It is." Gray said as he and the elder heard a door down the hall a ways open and then close. Gene peeked around his desk and shrugged his shoulders before glancing at him with a bemused expression and then winking as Sara came into view.

Gray found himself holding his breath as he spotted the young woman from earlier walking towards him. Her long dark hair was unbound and she had changed her shoes from boots to flats. Taking away from her normal height by three inches.

She stopped just shy of arms reach from him and tilted her head back to look up at him giving him a better look of her features. She was quite lovely now that he got a better look of her- not that he hadn't thought so before but that was neither here nor there.

Sara had pretty pixie like features that went well with her fair coloring and dark hair as well as her slight height.

She looked so tiny and delicate that Gray couldn't tear his eyes from her even if he wanted too. Which was why when she began walking back the way that she had come, he quickly and silently followed at her heel while making sure to maintaining enough distance between them to keep from accidentally stepping on her.

After all he didn't want to hurt her.

And god knew that he would _hurt_ her if he stepped on her with his size twelve in a half shoes.

Reaching the door to the stairs, she reached out to open it but he reached around her and pulled it open- and almost hit her with it. Inwardly cringing at how awkward he was being, Gray muttered a soft apology as he held the door open for her.

She gave him a quick look from over her shoulder that wasn't really a glare or stare. It was more of a look that he had sometimes gotten from Alice when she visited Clover Tower though he had never been able to place the peculiar look as anything more than a momentarily calculating look.

Following her lead, the two of them took several flights of stairs up until they finally reached one in particular and she led him out of the stairwell and into an open hallway.

"Come on it's this way." She said in a soft tone as he followed her down the hall a little ways to a door with the number **367** and then took out a small key ring and used one of the keys on it to open the door for him and then stepped back out of the way so that he could go into the apartment and check it out.

However Gray seemed to have different ideas from Sara's own.

So different in fact that he merely cast a once over around the main room of the apartment before deeming it adequate enough for him to live in.

"Well, are you going to go in and check it out or not?" Sara asked in an almost impatient tone as she crossed her arms over her breasts as the dark haired giant turned his head and seemed to consider her words for a second before asking her curiously.

"Where do you live?" He would need to know if he was to get to know her. Though from what he had figured out already, she was a rather private, prickly little thing who was far stronger than she looked. But he knew from personal experience with Alice that a woman- er outsider, he meant to say outsider- could be a walking contradiction.

Both as fragile as she was strong.

And perhaps that was why he was already dead set on taking this particular female back to Wonderland with him. After all, why bother to search when the perfect person had practically been dropped into his lap?

"Yeah- I'm not telling you where I live because that really isn't your business." Sara said as she reached out and grasped the doorknob and began to pull it closed when he reached out and gently grasped her wrist in his hand, stilling her in mid motion as he leaned down into her personal space.

"But it is my business Sara... I came here for you." Gray said as she flattened herself against the doorframe. Her pale face going absolutely colorless as her teal eyes widened a bit at the close proximity of him.

The temptingly smoky scent of her fear was almost making his mouth water. Not in a bad way, mind you, though it had been quite a while since he had last been so damn close to a woman that appealed to him even in the slightest since he was usually very picky about his women.

Because of his former occupation he had held three women he had been involved with as they had died. He had found two more after they had committed suicide... So yeah, he was usually pretty picky about his women now.

He tended to go for the contradictions.

Fragile and strong.

He liked them like that. Fragile enough for him to feel needed by them while being strong enough for him not to break them during sex. Especially since he tended to get rough and fuck his lovers like a man possessed. Mainly because his baser instincts demanded he do so.

And right now he wanted nothing more than to pin Sara to the doorframe and fuck her unconscious. However he refused to do that due to propriety and besides, he didn't know her enough.

And she obviously didn't care much for him at the moment but then he supposed that if he had someone towering over him and scaring him then he wouldn't care much about them either. "Sorry," He said as he straightened his spine and dropped his arm, reluctantly releasing her from his grasp just long enough for her to jerk the apartment door closed and then turn and run back the way that they had come.

Gray stayed rooted to his spot watching her disappear from his sight and sighed.

Damn, he'd botched things badly. Hadn't he?


	4. Chapter 4

The next week passed quickly for Gray since he had a lot to do. Starting off with signing papers to lease the apartment that Sara had shown him and then paying the first two months rent just in case. Shortly after which he had spent some time putting his things away, getting the lay of the land, figuring out where to get everything he needed.

Medicine, food, and some new non formal clothing and shoes- since his normal attire didn't exactly make him seem approachable- along with some other necessities that he had possibly forgotten to pack. Like his favorite cologne, cigarettes, brush, and toothbrush.

Though how he had managed to forget any of them was absolutely beyond him. But then again...he had been a mite frazzled.

He had even managed to purchase a few personal items that he took a fancy too. None of which were anything big or flashy. Just stuff to give his home away from home a nice personal touch that others would find welcoming. Not that he intended to invite anyone but Sara into his home.

But he hoped that she liked his nick-nacks .

Especially since they were little crystalline figurines of butterflies, flowers, and small animals that he found cute. So far he had collected five Kimodo dragon's, four baby seal sets, nine colorful butterflies, three cats and six sets of colorful crystal flowers.

He had also gone a little crazy buying some dish sets and some herbal and floral blended teas and some coffee.

So when the end of the week finally rolled around and he still hadn't seen or heard anything from Sara, he began to worry that perhaps he had frightened her off for good.

Something he excelled at sure, but he didn't want to excel at it right this moment.

Sighing, Gray wen to check on how low he was on food and found that he was out of pretty much everything but a couple of carrots and a small bowl of fruit from the other night.

 _Alright, it looks like I need to go out and get groceries again._ He thought to himself as he walked over to the door and grabbed his jacket off of the hook hanging on the wall and shrugged it on before snatching up his wallet and apartment key and then slipping out the door.

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Sara stared blankly at the display of oranges in front of her and nearly cringed at the sight that she beheld. Just what the hell was wrong with the produce in this store? It was like it had already been eaten and shit out by something and then picked up and rinsed off and put on display for people to buy.

Turning her head to glance towards the veggies that she'd seen earlier she really did cringe this time. Especially since they weren't much better.

The only good ones were the tomato's, avocado's, carrots, and maybe some broccoli. She _hated_ broccoli. No wait- hate was too tame a word for what she felt towards the vegetable. It was something akin to how she felt about chicken gizzards.

 _Ew._ She thought as she looked down at her basket contents.

So far she had cereal, milk, honey turkey sandwich meat, some chees and bread. It was official- between the angry phone call that she had gotten while at work today from one of her brother's and this fiasco- she had finally come to the conclusion that; god _hated_ her.

Holding her head with one hand, she closed her eyes for a moment to think. She needed at least a month's worth of food since she had only been interesting in grabbing some odds and ends here at the corner mart.

"Obviously coming here was a bad idea." She muttered to herself as she wondered for a moment if she should put everything back and just leave or go ahead and get what she had and simply go to the other grocery store in the area since they usually had more plentiful and fresh stuff to sort through.

She was half way down the isle when she slammed into something hard enough to send her stumbling back a few steps before she managed to twist one of her ankles and started to fall. Not noticing that the figure that she had run into had turned to catch her until she found herself almost picked up off of her feet completely and blinked down at gold colored eyes and wanted to slug her newest neighbor in the jaw out of sheer frustration.

But managed to still her hand by simply pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand while her neighbor stepped over the- what she now assumed was a mess of milk, bread and carrots- before he oh-so-carefully placed her on her feet before asking, "Are you alright?"

It was the somewhat weird feeling that she got from him in that moment that made her earlier irritation dissipate almost instantly. Perhaps because she could not only hear but pick up on his genuine concern and startlement towards the current situation.

So it was safe to say that he had done nothing as of yet to warrant being punched since he was genuinely surprised to see her here. Much less trying to mow him down while no paying attention to where she was going.

"I-I'm fine," She said as he took a moment to look her over from head to toe before slowly nodding his head at her response. "I'm sorry I ran into you. I didn't see you standing there."

He cocked his head a little bit to the side as he stared at her as if trying to gauge whether or not she was lying before deciding that she wasn't. Blinking his golden eyes at her, he wondered to himself what had occupied her mind so much that she had missed the fact that a six foot four inch tall person was standing just a few inches from her.

Whatever it was- it was still occupying her mind. He noted as she absently chewed on her lower lip as she glowered at the basket of things that she had been carrying up until their collision.

"That's quite alright Miss Ambers." He said politely in an attempt to keep conversation going a bit more. But it was difficult. The blasted girl didn't really want to speak.

Suddenly she stopped glowering at the remains of her basket and turned those piercing teal eyes to his person and asked in an almost demanding tone, "You know my name? Oh that's right- I forgot that you had talked to Gene a little bit before I came down to get you to see the apartment."

He nodded his head slowly before she sighed and muttered something along the lines of, "Gene's a damned traitor." And went on to state that his 'punishment' would be swift and merciless. Making Gray's lips twitch in amusement as he made a mental note to warn Gene as soon as he next saw him so that the kind elderly man could avoid Sara's wrath.

"Forgive me, it was never my intention to cause you distress Miss Ambers. I'm new to the country and only wanted to make friends. If I overstepped any bounds before, please feel free to inform me." Gray said politely.

Sighing again, Sara realized that if he really was just being friendly then there was nothing much to be worried about. Especially if he was as new to the country as he had just implied.

It would certainly explain why he had been sitting outside of her apartment building last week. The poor guy had probably gotten lost or something and simply wound up in the area.

"No. I'm sorry," Sara said awkwardly as she waved his apology off. "I was far ruder than I should have been..."

"Was there a reason for that or was it just me?" Gray wondered aloud causing her to flinch slightly as he glanced at her.

"N-No. It wasn't you." She lied, hoping that he wouldn't question her words any further. Gray however could smell the taint of a lie as well as heart her accelerated heart rate at the moment and _knew_ that she was lying to him about her reaction to him during their first meeting.

Deciding not to react to the lie she had just told him, he looked around the store and sighed before setting his basket down next to a display of grapes and said, "There seems to be slim pickings here. Do you know of anywhere else I can get my groceries?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. I was actually about to head that way myself. Do you want to ride with me?"

"Ride?" Gray asked curiously wondering if she was referring to one of those dreadful, terrible smelling multi colored machines that were everywhere in the city.

"Yeah. I didn't feel like walking to work this morning so I took my car."

"Ah." Gray said deciding that if she would be using one of the damndable contraptions then he could as well. And if she was offering the use of her vehicle then he should accept since it was the gentlemanly thing to do. "If you would not find my presence too taxing on you, then I would like to accompany you." He said as he reached out and took her small hand in his and lifted it to his lips so that he could brush a kiss along her knuckles but was unable to complete the action because she pulled her hand from his grasp and gave a nervous laugh.

"Please don't do that."

"Do what?" Gray asked curiously as he dropped his hand back to his side.

She looked like she was about to say something to him, but then stopped herself and merely shook her head. "Nothing. Well come on if your riding with me." She said as she abruptly turned and began moving towards the registers not bothering to look back and see if he was following or not.


End file.
